Charles a



(No Model.)

C. A. LUDLOW. METHOD OF MAKING RUGS, FRINGE. &c., AND MATERIAL THEREFOR.

Patented Feb. 16, 1886. 01

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. LUDLOVV, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE.

HALF TO ALBERT R. LACEY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF MAKING RUGS, FRINGE, &c., AND MATERIAL THEREFOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 336,524, dated February 16, 1886.

Application filed April 9, 1885.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES A LUDLow, of the city of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in the Method of Making Rugs, Fringe, 830., and in Material Therefor, of which the following is a specification.

The making of rugs,mats,and other articles for household use from worsted or carpet-waste now forms a very popular and instructive home occupation for ladies and children. Such rugs or mats commonly consist of a body-piece of fabric which is of coarse material-such as I 5 bagging,ticking, or canvas-having a tufted surface produced by sewing thereon loops of worsted or other waste material; and an im portant object of my invention is to providea method whereby such rugs may be more readily made by the use of an ordinary sewingmachine than has been possible heretofore.

In carrying out my invention I first provide i strips of pasteboard, card-board, or other analogous fragile material, which are of any 2 desired length and of suitable width-say about one inch-and then wind around such strips from end to end worsted, fine-cut rags, carpet-waste, or other material which it is desired to employ in making the rug. 0 take a body-piece of fabric, of suitable size,

and on the surface thereof I sew these previously-wound strips of card-boardor other material, and after each strip is sewed on I sever the worsted or other winding at the edges of 5 the strip with a knife or scissors, after which the card-board or other strip,which has been nearly or quite cut in two through the center by the sewing operation, may be readily removed in two parts from the line of stitching, 40 leaving the worsted or other material attached to the body fabric in short pieces or tufts stitched through their center upon the fabric. In sewing these wound strips one after another upon the body fabric, 1 preferablyleave 5 the outer edge'of each wound strip uncut until the next wound strip has been tucked under said outer edge and sewed down to the body fabric. By this means I am enabled to get each strip more accuratelyinto place with reference to the line of sewing previously means of the appliances shown in my appli- 100 made than would be possible if both edges of the last strip applied were cut and the portions of the strip removed .before the next strip were placed in proper position and sewed to the body fabric.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents an outline view of a rug made according to my invention,a portion thereof only being represented as complete. Fig. 2 represents a sectional view of a portion of the body fabric and the tufted facing secured thereon. Fig. 3 represents awound strip of pasteboard, card-board, or similar soft and fragile material ready to be sewed upon the body fabric in themaking of a rug. Fig. at represents an unwound strip which is slotted in its central portion, for a purpose hereinafter described. Fig. 5 represents a portion of the body fabric with strips applied thereto, illustrating more clearly the manner in which the strips-are placed thereon, one after another, ready for sewing; and Fig. 6 represents a portion of a wound strip,illustrating my invention as applied to the making of fringe suitable for application to rugs and other articles of analogous character.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures. I then A. designates a body fabric of proper size for the making of a rug, and which may be of bagging, ticking, canvas, or other coarse or strong material. To make a rug, this body fabric is to be covered with tufted material and provided, if desired,with fringe at the end. In order to make the rug, I first take strips B, of pasteboard, card-board, or other comparatively soft and fragile material, which the needle of a sewing-machine will readily pierce,

and which are of approximately uniform width from end to end and of any desired length. These strips may be, for example, from one inch to one and a quarter inch wide, more or less. I then take such pasteboard or other strips B and wind them closely from end to end with yarn,worsted, carpet-waste, or other material, C, with which it is desired to cover the body fabric A. For winding these strips I may employ any suitable apparatus or mechanism; but they may be conveniently wound by cation for Letters Patent, Serial No. 161,77l, filed April 9, 1885. Such strips may, indeed, be wound by hand, if desired.

The strip B may be imperforate throughout that portion which is covered with the worsted or material C; or it may be provided with slots (1, extending lengthwise therein,as shown in Fig. 4, and serving a purpose hereinafter described. The method of applying these previouslywound strips 13 O to the body fabric A will be best understood by reference to Fig. 5. To do this it is only necessary to sew each wound strip to the body fabric by a line of stitching, at, extending through about the center of the wound strip and passing through the wound strip and the body fabric. After this is done the worsted or other windingO, is cut by a knife or scissors at the edges of the strip, and the two portions of the strip which are formed by its division or weakening by the sewing of the machine-needle may be then drawn out laterally from the winding, leaving the winding 0 in short tufts secured to the fabric by the lines of stitching and having their ends presented upward and blended, as shown in Fig. 2.

In order that a new strip, when placed on thebody fabric preparatory to sewing thereon, may be brought to its proper position relatively to the strip last applied, I prefer to insert the new strip under the edge of the one last sewed on before the worsted is cut at such edge of the strip last sewed on. This will be readily understood from Fig. 5, and facilitates the placing of the new strip in proper position relatively to the line of stitching a previously formed. 7 7

It is desirable toslit or slot the strips B ofpasteboard, as represented in Fig. 4:, because then the needle of the sewing-machine will not have to perform the labor of puncturing the pasteboard, and the worsted ormaterial Owill be sewed more tightly to the body fabric.

The strips B may be wound with material of different colors, and may be applied to the body fabric so as to form artistic patterns in the completed rug. Such apattern is repre sented by pen-shading in the completed portion of the rug shown in Fig. 1. The strips, being of pasteboard, may, when wound, be cut transversely to obtain any length desired to produce the pattern. For instance, if strips of red are being applied to the body fabric, and it is desired to have an inch length ofblack, it is only necessary to cut from a strip wound with black material a piece of one inch in length, and sew it to the body fabric at the end of the piece wound with red material. So, also, if the wound strips are not of the proper length to extend across the body fabric, they may be cut at any point transversely to their length, and by the operation of sewing be joined or abutted end to end upon the body fabric.

In Fig. GI haveillustrateda method of making fringe 0*, such as is suitable to be applied to the ends or marginal portions of a rug of the kind described. In making fringe accord ing to this method I wind a strip, B, of paste board or other fragile material, with a covering of worsted or other material, C, and I then sew through the strip a line of stitches, a, which are very near one edge thereof, and by which the worsted winding 011 opposite sides of the strip will be connected. The worsted or other covering material, C, is then severed by a knife or scissors at both edges of the strip, and the pasteboard or other filling, B, which has been partly divided by the line of stitches a, is removed and thrown away.

In Fig. 6 I have represented a strip one portion of which is wound and sewed, but has not been cut at the edges of the strip, and in the other portion of which the winding material C has been cut at the edges and the strip portions removed, thereby forming a fringe, (3*, composed of parallel threads or yarns, which are securely connected together by the line of stitching a.

It will be seen that by my invention I provide for making home-made, rugs, mats, and other articles very much more rapidly and simply than by any other means heretofore used of which I have knowledge, and the whole method may be carried out by the person making the rug, or the strips of pasteboard or other fragile material,B, may be sold by fancy stores already wound with worsted or other material, and ready to be employed in the making of'rugs by sewing them to a body fabric.

I am aware that it is not new in the art of making rugs and fringe to employ a fork or device having parallel tines or members, to

then wind such fork or device transversely with the worsted, rags, or other material employed, and to finally sew the wound material to a body fabric by a line of stitching extend ing parallel with and between the tines or members, after which the fork is withdrawn lengthwise and the loops of material are cut. I do not claim such a method as of my invention.

The strips of pasteboard which I employ are of approximately uniform width and thickness throughout, and inasmuch as there is no projection on the faces of such wound strips they may be sewed to the body fabric by a line of stitching at any point in their width, and may be applied by any sewing-machine, no matter what the width of its presser-foot may be. The strip serves as a guide for cutting the material wound round it, and it is so weakened by the needle of the sewing-machine puncturing it along the line of stitching that the portions on opposite sides of the line may be readily torn apart and removed laterally after the worsted or other winding material is cut.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The improvement in the art of making rugs and analogous articles, consisting in providing strips of pasteboard or other fragile material of approximately uniform width and thickness, in winding such strips with worsted or other material from end to end, in sewing strips so wound to a body fabric by a line or lines of stitching extendinglengthwise of the wound strips, and in then severing the winding material at the edges of the strips and re moving the portions of the strips on opposite sides of the line ofstitching, leaving the wound material in the form of tufts attached to the body fabric, substantially as herein described.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a strip or strips of pasteboard or other fragile material which will be readily pierced by the needle of a sewing-machine, and which are of approximately uniform width and thickness from end to end, wound with worsted or other covering or tufting material, as O, for use in the manufacture of rugs and other articles, substantially as herein described.

3. The improvement in the art of making rugs and other articles, consisting in winding strips of pasteboard or other fragile material with worsted or other covering material,C, in sewing such strips to a body fabric by lines of stitching extending lengthwise of the strips, and in then cutting the covering material at the edges of the strip and removing the portions of the strip remaining on opposite sides of the line of stitching, each strip being inserted under the edge of the strip previously sewed to the body fabric before the material is cut at the outer edge of such previously-sewed strip, substantially as herein described.

CHAS. A. LUDLOW.

Witnesses:

A. R. LAGEY, G. N. WORTHEN. 

